If I had one wish, I’d wish for a billion dollars. I used to wish for a million, but that was before inflation. Now it’s a billion.

But if I had two wishes, I’d wish my kids had snooze buttons.

I’m not a morning person. In fact, my brain doesn’t activate until right around 10:00. This is unfortunate since I have to be at work by 8:00. My children, however, believe in rising with the sun. Scratch that. They believe in rising before the sun. And they believe that pre-dawn darkness is the perfect time to wake me up because they’re “starving” and it’s “to death”.

I usually stumble blindly out of bed, feel around for a box of cereal, pour it into a bowl and feed it to them dry as a snack. Then I collapse face down on my bed, praying to all that is holy I might sleep until at least 6:00. I thought this was going to my life until they were old enough to make their own breakfast and leave me to my bed.

Then I visited Peryl.

I discovered she’s actually taught her children to make simple breakfasts before the age of ten.

She’s obviously a genius.

On the way home from her house, I stopped at the store and picked up bagels and frozen waffles. Tomorrow, I’ll begin Make Your Own Breakfast 101. By next week, I’m hoping I will have magically found the snooze button.

Mandy Dawson is the creator of In Mandyland, an almost daily blog recording her adventures in juggling a full-time job, two active children, four arguing hens, a fluffy bunny, and one ex-husband. A self-diagnosed gardening and crafting addict, she often finds herself gluing together clay pots and trying to discover the cure for brown thumb. When she’s not writing, she can be found burning dinners while she stares off into space with a story idea. She was a regular contributor for Makes Fun of Stuff, Aiming Low, and Six Kitchens, and has been featured on BlogHer and Mamapedia. She is an Assistant Editor for Write on Edge and has had her fiction featured in three anthologies currently available on Amazon.